What foods can/can't you freeze?

ska_lover

Hi there,

My fridge has gone kaput this evening, and I have been putting things in the freezer that say 'suitable for home freezing' - but I have a gammon joint in there i brought at morrisons its 750g - and nowhere it says i can freeze it. Can i whack it in the freezer?

Larumbelle

I would have thought that would be fine, I certainly would!

pigpen

gammon is fine to freeze.. I have 2 in my freezer at the moment.

Cheese, butter, margarine, milk, cooked meats are all fine frozen.. yoghurts go nasty in texture.. but are fine for smoothies

Most fruit/veg is fine out of the fridge anyway.

I think the only things I'd be concerned about using up would be the half empty jars.. they don't last long

ska_lover

Thankyou very much
cheese, i didnt think of that, ive got two big blocks as well, thankyou you have saved me a fortune in wastage! xx

firstinflight

Just be careful when you defrost the joint that it's not still frozen in the middle.

Sunnyday

Cheese can be frozen - no problem, if you have a shaded area of garden then you can fill a bucket with cold water and pop things in that can`t be frozen - do put a lid on though as bugs are just starting to emerge.

IMHO there is very little that cannot be frozen despite the instructions on the packet. The difference is mainly how you mean to use it either cooked from frozen or defrosted beforehand.

HTH

SD

Hannah_10

The reason they leave the "ok to freeze" off of some things we all know freeze is that they have already frozen and thawed them once.

For food hygeines sakes you are only supposed to freeze things once. The reason is that the bacteria present (the cause of food poisoning) don't die in the freezer, they sort of hibernate and form what are called spores. So it's like temporarily arresting thier reproduction, not getting rid of them. If you freeze and defrost repeatedly you simply lose all track of how heavy the bacteria concentration is. Not that we actively track bacteria concentrations in the items in our fridges of course, but we have all evolved/grown up with an inbuilt understanding of this, on an unspoken level.

All food contains bacteria- all of it, all of the time. The difference between safe food and unsafe food is the concentration. Because bacteria double themselves roughly every 20 minutes the increase rate speeds up over time. Like this, 1, 2, 4, 8, 26, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc. We are talking billions of bacteria per cubic centimeter before we start even getting close to unsafe levels by the way. A few hundred thousand or even a few million has no impact at all.

So not only does food have to pick up any specific bacteria, which commercial food operations like the gammon producer do thier best not to allow, it has to have time to allow enough multiplication. Bacteria in the fridge still multiply, just at a vastly slower rate than at room temperature.

Where bacteria can't multiply though, is in high heat. The sort of heat we cook on. I can't remember the exact heat for killing most food poisoning causing bacterias but it's well under 100c, any oven temperature or grill temperature that you cook it with is going to knock a the majority of the little blighters off, even if you boil it in water. Microwaves also do the same job. Essentially if you cook it, you make it safe again.

So when the gammon producer leaves the words "suitable for home freezing" off the gammon they are taking strict precautions. It has probably been transported at some point in a frozen lorry/shipping container. They don't want you to sue them. Freezing food twice is far from as dangerous as many of the things we don't worry about (like licking the soon we stirred the cake mix with) and they, as we all know from lots of experience of childhood in the days before anyone fussed about stuff like this, are absolutely fine and not really "dangerous" at all.

If you reckon you can survive licking the cake mix sppon, then freeze the gammon again and cook it through when you do.

In fact, with your fridge gone, I would freeze everything and see what lasts and what doesn't. Freezing food is a risk you take in regard to that some food doesn't defrost edible again (cucumber is one, it defrosts like nasty green goo). If you freeze it and it seems alright to use when you have deforsted it again that's because it is.

To freeze eggs break them and beat them then freeze the yellow mixed egg in bags, pots or ice cubes. They can go in omlettes and cakes and things.
To freeze herbs chop them and freeze in ice cube trays with a bit of water.
To freeze wine for future cookery use a bag because it freezes a bit like a slushy.
Butter/marg will freeze.
Mayonaise will freeze (although getting it out of the glass jar first is a good idea, in case the glass was poor quality).
All soft fruit like raspberries freeze really well.
So do most veg.
Er.. what else might you have? If in doubt try it anyway, you might as well try it and see what works as throw it all out now.

Pink.

Hi ska lover,

I would freeze the gammon and have done so many times. Providing it doesn't have a warning saying that it is not suitable for freezing then I would consider it safe to do so.

This thread may help with other things:

What foods can/can't you freeze?

I'll add your thread to it later as your question may help others.

Pink

lauren_1

I bought a diddy thai curry kit (reduced) which had about an inch of lemongrass, same of root ginger, a single tiny chilli, 4 baby corn pieces, some mange tout and a handful of coriander.

That was a £1, I was wondering if i could make my own little kits and freeze them, could probably do it so much cheaper.

BitterAndTwisted

I can't think of a single reason why you couldn't although the coriander would most probably be a bit slushy when it defrosts